Incandescent Cultures: Cultural Expressions in Lighting Design

Lighting design and cultural expression have the potential to create cultural nostalgia leading to positive emotional states. The above phenomena were explored with immigrants from Persian, Chinese, South Asian and Anglo-Saxon Canadian ethnicities living in Toronto, with the objective of creating a human-centered design of a culturally inclusive lighting design. Using an inclusive design approach and a human-centered design process, data were gathered from 15 participants from above cultures about their lighting and cultural preferences using a questionnaire survey and contextual interview in their residences. With their consent, photographs of lighting and cultural artefacts around their living spaces were collected. Analysis of the data revealed significant information about their use of lighting, space and colour to enhance their positive emotions, using which three personalizable, multicultural lighting system designs were conceptualized.